Real scrimmage...

This week we had our very first real scrimmage, with refs and NSO's and everything. It was chaotic, exciting, overwhelming, insanity. I was called on by head ref Collin D Shotz before we had even started. "black 42!" OMG! What did I do? I'm not even skating yet! Turns out that my number was a little hard to read where it crossed through the tattoo on my shoulder, but STILL, Refs can be intimidating when you're not on their side!
I feel like overall it went very well. We had a guest skater from WRD with us, Skull Candi. She is an AMAZING skater and she made several of us feel pretty bad about ourselves for a bit. Then it was brought to our attention that she was not just shutting the rookies down, but our fearless leaders also. Wanton, Manna, and England are great skaters. Skull Candi has some amazing skills that we simply haven't had experience with, she can cut the track on a dime. She has what we affectionately refer to in our league as an expanding bum. (This is when somehow a tiny little skater somehow manages to have her butt block the entire track). it is very easy to be intimidated by a skater like her. I think I had an advantage with dealing with her because I've seen her pull the same moves on some of my other mentors in WRD.
All told, I managed to get one penalty, a major no less =P. Failure to reform the pack. Love you Pork Chop, but it was all I could do not to fall down at that point. I didn't even know what I had done wrong at the time. I still went and served my time. Never question refs. We took a break later and I cornered the ref and asked him to explain the penalty. I didn't question it, just wanted to know what I could have done to prevent it. He was great and explained what I had done, and how to avoid it in the future.
I injured my first derby girl. I was at the rear of the pack, and one of my teammates, a veteran who is currently without a league, came up behind me and grabbed my hips. I should have been able to take it, but she caught me by surprise. I fell down and flailed a bit too much. I hit the vet in question square in the face with my elbow. Brought tears to her eyes. Made her lip bleed. I still feel really bad about that. She reminded me that there are no "sorry's" in derby. She took it well, as expected from someone with her experience.
It was incredible. I still have numbers on my arms. =)